During Christmas, my aunt mentioned she had recently read that the word "brilliant" was naturally fading from the English vocabulary. The cousins, siblings, and I joined together in becoming committed to prevent the word from being lost in our vocabulary, and with each Christmas gift unwrapped that afternoon, someone commented on the brilliance of the object/wrapping/etc. While we had fun over-ellaborating the use of the word, I couldn't think of anything better to describe these past couple of weeks with kids and friends.
... BRILLIANT!
These students make me so proud to be their English teacher! Most are eager learners and are bright in stretching their growing knowledge of the English language. In a lesson about the body, the students quickly flew through the basic vocabulary and chimed together in a little cheer as I pulled out a set of harder words. Even after labeling the traced person with over a dozen vocabulary terms, the students continued to ask "but how do you say this?" as they would point to their tongues, cheeks, and teeth... words I had left out intentionally because of the difficulty in pronunciation as well as the already overwhelming amount of vocabulary I had previously given them! Still, many of the advanced students silently tried moving their lips, teeth, and tongue in unison to produce the correct sound.
Labeling the traced person with vocabulary terms
The class enjoyed practicing the vocabulary through an abbreviated version of the Hokey Pokey that I created (without any jibberish words). However, the favorite activity was undoubtedly an animal guessing game. Pairs of students each received a picture of an animal and worked together to write three sentence facts on about their animal using the body vocabulary we had practiced (ie: "it has no legs; moves on its belly; has two eyes." -snake). I thought the activity would really challenge the students as they had to create sentences for their specific animal, but I found myself telling many groups, "go ahead and try to write five sentences!" as they quickly finished the original requirements.
After reading four of Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggie books, the kids are completely hooked. Parents are asking me about the books their children are talking about and say their kids excitedly leave for English Class and return home with anticipation for next week's lesson! I love their excitement in the learning and can see how the repeated reading and acting is developing their language skills even deeper. Possibly the most fun I have reading these stories to the kids is watching the reactions of my students and of the translators. Sometimes my translator is laughing at the story and is momentarily stalled in their translation of the page!
I created a theatre with the characters from the Elephant and Piggie books. When the students entered the room and saw the new theatre, they quickly tossed off their coats and dashed over to the new performance stage. I had put it together 30 minutes before the kids arrived, so I looking forward to seeing how they like the new upgrades and puppets I have for next week!
Not only is my Kid's Class uniquely clever, but these Littles are also very talented! We practiced four basic colors - blue, green, yellow, and red. The Littles quickly sorted through the colored toys I had given them to sort all the objects by color, but what impressed me the most was when two of the students (about 2 and a half years) were able to say all four colors in English! I know that it is not only my classes that are helping the Littles understand this language, but these moms are quick to jump on learning experiences and repeating words in English and Czech for their toddlers.
Sorting Toys by Color
Matching Colors and Shapes
Exploring Patterns and Texture in Art
In a Movement Lesson, we created an obstacle course that had the kids going down the slide, crawling under the table, and walking on oversized bean-bag pillows! They were so into this challenge that the moms sat back on the sofa with cups of tea and watched as their children moved through the course over and over again!
Playing with their dolls in the theatre and holding up the "stop sign" at the end of their performance.
My teen class is ever-fluctuating. I rarely have a class with all the same students as the week before. This can make it challenging to create lessons as each lesson must stand alone so that students who are just starting the class or who have missed the past couple weeks would be able to participate. I always have back-up activities if there are not enough students for one game I had planned or if there are more students than I expected. I try to be prepared as well as I can be! Even with the many teaching challenges, I enjoy spending the time with these teens and can see how the class is helping them connect with us at Elim. Two sisters who started coming to the lessons before Christmas were very shy and inseparable in activities; this past week, the eldest sister volunteered to team up with another student in the class and the younger sister smiled as I asked if she would be my partner. I am praising God for the way this class allows me to be His light.
You can never go wrong with a sports lesson - especially when learning verb tenses! It was fun pretending to be Olympians for the hour as we practiced the vocabulary ;)
You would not be able to tell simply by looking at the pictures, but club has been bringing in hoards of kids lately! Tuesday - a normal club day - brought over 50 kids to club! They space out in multiple different areas of the club space with a group of them playing dodgeball in the big room and smaller groups occupying various places throughout the club room - as well as the bathroom! Frequently, I will walk into the bathroom during club hours to find a group of girls sitting on the floor with their backs propped against the sink cupboards. They often just want a moment to look a videoclip on their phones or to chat with their friends if it gets too noisy in the club room. The kids pop up in all the rooms like dandelions finding the smallest spaces to set roots; and I suppose if they must root, then I am thankful that they feel safe and comfortable here with us. I always liked dandelions anyway.
With the Girls at Club
Maybe the most stressful game of JENGA ever with these two! Their steady hands had me wondering if someday they will be surgeons. Needless to say, I lost the game - but who knew a simple table game could give us such an adrenaline rush!
Our youth group continues to jump back in forth between our two club locations in Letovice and Boskovice; yet, the majority of the youth kids come to both places! It is wonderful to see how these kids in two different cities have bonded and created friendships. Since they are becoming more and more comfortable with each other, we are noticing more of the youth becoming open to ask questions regarding the speaking as well as taking on more leadership roles in the youth group. Next week, we will take the youth group to the mountains for a Winter Retreat, and there are 10 youth kids who volunteered to do part of the program time! I am excited to see these students dive into the story of Joseph and anxious to see how the Lord will teach them through this study!
Youth Group in Letovice
Getting Dinner in the City of Boskovice is a Youth Group "Tradition"